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Beijing/New York (Reuters), the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that Chenga Mao, the Wales Fargo banker, who was blocked to leave the country, was involved in a criminal case and is obliged to cooperate with the investigation.
Mao is the latest of several leaders from foreign corporations that will be stopped while trying to leave China. Her ban on going out is at a busy moment in US -China relations, as the two countries are arranged by trade policies.
Chinese law enforcement agencies limit MAO’s release in accordance with the law, Guo Jiacun, a spokesman for the ministry, told a regular briefing at the press.
Wells Fargo declined to comment. On Friday, the bank said it was “working on the relevant channels” to ensure MAO’s return to the United States as soon as possible.
The US Bank stopped all trips to China after the ban on Mao’s release, said a person familiar with the question last week, saying he was a US citizen. It is not known exactly when the ban was imposed.
The case is being investigated and Mao was obliged to cooperate with the investigation, Goo said without being developed.
“Everyone in China, whether Chinese or foreigners, must comply with Chinese laws,” Guo said, adding that China will defend its legal rights and interests in investigations.
Beijing has used prohibitions on both Chinese and foreign citizens, often in connection with civil disputes, regulatory investigations or criminal investigations. Reuters could not determine if Mao had betrayed his Chinese citizenship.
The output ban marks a great contrast from three weeks ago when Mao stood on stage in Rio de Janeiro, surrounded by industry leaders. She has just been elected chairman of FCI, a group that facilitates international trade through factoring, a process in cross-border transactions that involves funding, billing and payments.
“I’m excited about what’s ahead … We’ll go far together,” Mao published in LinkedIn. Later, she travels to China, where she was born, and is blocked by authorities from her return to Alpharet, Georgia.
The Shanghai -born managing director and Wells Fargo await more information according to two sources familiar with the situation who refused to be identified in view of the sensitivity of the issue.
The bank is looking for more information through different channels, but is trying to maintain a low profile to avoid escalating the situation, according to sources.
The ban on Mao’s exit is coming as diplomatic and business connections between the US and China remain tense. Experts said this could stop the corporate trip to mainland China, especially from people born in China holding foreign passports.
Mao has been a banker at Wells Fargo for more than a decade and works in her international factoring business, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Factoring is a method of funding in which companies sell their claims to third parties, such as banks, in exchange for immediate money and advise multinational customers for cross -border worker strategies.
FCI has 48 members in China, representing nearly 13% of its membership, according to the group’s website. In total, it has nearly 400 Member States in more than 90 countries.
FCI did not reply to requests for comment.
At the Mao’s house, about an hour north of Atlanta, no one was at home on Friday night. Neighbors declined to comment to Reuters.
The home is in the Nesbit Lakes neighborhood, which shoulders narrow, winding roads. High quality houses have manicure lawns and large oak trees that surround a small lake near the Chatahuchi River in the northern suburb of Atlanta.
The average price of housing in the area is just over $ 1.17 million.
Exit bans
Wells Fargo’s Chinese business is much smaller than Wall Street peers with branches in Beijing and Shanghai.
Several foreign executives have fallen into studies by authorities who have chilled business sentiment in China.
Two sources that have helped to resolve the exit bans in the past have said they are often issued by local Chinese governments. Such prohibitions can be used to deal with a number of issues – from business disputes to family conflicts, accusations of illegal behavior or personal disputes, said sources that did not mean specific cases of MAO. The two sources refused to be identified because of the sensitivity of the question.
Factoring usually includes companies that send international invoices internally and can be complex and are sometimes subject to incorrect management against the background of capital control, the two sources said.
A Chinese-American man working for the US Trade and Traveling Department to China months ago is also a ban on exit after not revealing his job for the US government, according to The Washington Post and other retail outlets. The individual is not baptized. Reuters could not check the report immediately.
US state and commercial departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor the Chinese embassy in Washington.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that this month there is a high probability of a meeting between US and Chinese leaders, Donald Trump and Ci Jinping, but this date has not been discussed.
As the use of exit bans, including for foreign citizens, is increasing, “too often companies and countries prefer to remain silent with the hope of improving or speeding up the process,” says Laura Hart, China in the world’s rights director in defense defense lawyers, a non -profit organization.
“The signal you should send is that no one is safe when traveling to China,” she added.
(Reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing, Lananh Nguyen and Nupur Anand in New York; Additional Reporting by Rich McKay, Trevor Hunnicutt, Karen Freifeld, Daphne Psaledakis and KoHhe Gui Beijing Newsroom;